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Inkjet paper is a special fine paper designed for inkjet printers, typically classified by its weight, brightness and smoothness, and sometimes by its opacity.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2023) |
Inkjet paper is a special fine paper designed for inkjet printers, typically classified by its weight, brightness and smoothness, and sometimes by its opacity.
Some inkjet papers are made from high quality deinked pulp or chemical pulps. Quality inkjet paper requires good dimensional stability, no curling or cockling, and good surface strength. For most purposes surface smoothness is required. Sufficient and even porosity is required to counteract spreading of the ink. For lower quality printing, uncoated copy paper suffices, but higher grades require coating. The traditional coatings are not widely used for inkjet papers. For matte inkjet papers, it is common to use silica as pigment together with polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH). Glossy inkjet papers can be made by multicoating, resin coating, or cast coating on a lamination paper.
A variety of fine art inkjet papers meet the needs of professional photographers and artists. These papers share many characteristics with traditional watercolor, printmaking, and photographic papers. Fine art inkjet papers are designed to meet similar standards for longevity as traditional fine art papers: they should have a neutral pH, be lignin-free, and not include optical brighteners. Fine art inkjet papers differ from traditional fine art papers, in that they include coatings engineered to receive and hold ink. Fine art papers are usually made of rag pulp (100% cotton being the most common) but may also have an alpha-cellulose base. Some descriptions and comparisons of fine art inkjet papers are here, here, here, and here. Some fine art papers are mold made, while others are machine made, and may vary considerably in surface texture. Many fine art papers are available in pre-cut sheets or in rolls.
Standard office paper has traditionally been designed for use with typewriters and copy machines, where the paper usually does not get wet. With these papers, moisture tends to wick through the fibers and away from the point of contact. For inkjet printing, this dulls edges of lines and graphic boundaries, and lessens pigment intensity.
High-quality inkjet printing with dark, crisp lines requires that the paper have exactly the right absorbency to accept the ink but prevent sideways spread. Many general-purpose office papers of weights around 21 to 27 lb (80–100 g/m2) have been reformulated to work equally well with both inkjet and laser printers. However, this category of paper is only suitable for printing text, because the ink load is light.
Paper is manufactured by forming pulp fibers into a mat on an open mesh screen and then drying and pressing this mat into paper. Large areas of inkjet color, such as in graphics and photographs, soak the paper fibers with so much moisture that they swell and return to their original shape before pressing, resulting in a wavy buckling of the paper surface.
Double-sided inkjet printing is usually not possible with inexpensive low-weight copy paper because of bleed-through from one side to the other. These papers are also unsuitable for photographic work because standard office paper is usually not "white" enough. This results in a poor color gamut and leads to "muddy" colors. For all types of paper, printer driver settings must be adjusted to suit the paper, so that the printer delivers the right amount of ink.
Photo paper is inkjet paper specifically for printing photographs. It is a bright white due to bleaching or pigments such as titanium dioxide, and has been coated with a highly absorbent material that limits diffusion of the ink. Highly refined clay is a common coating to prevent ink spread.
The best of these papers, with suitable pigment-based ink systems, can match or exceed the image quality and longevity of photographic gelatin-based silver halide continuous tone printing methods used for color photographs, such as Fuji CrystalArchive (for color prints from negatives) and Cibachrome/Ilfochrome (for color prints from positive transparencies). For printing monochrome photographs, some photographers believe that traditional silver-based papers exhibit deeper black tones and smoother tonal gradation compared with inkjet prints; however, objective testing of contemporary fine art inkjet media (in particular the finer gloss and luster papers) does not support these impressions. Paper is one amongst several key elements determining the quality of the print; the others are the ink, the printer, the printer/paper profile, the software used for print preparation and most importantly - the skill and expertise of the print-maker.
Photo paper is typically divided into glossy , "matte", semi-matte, semi-gloss, satin or silk, and matte finishes. Paper thickness varies widely. Lighter weights are not much different from the general-purpose office papers described above, and can be used for all types of printing, though these are the least expensive and lowest-quality photo papers.
Photo papers for more critical work are thicker and have advanced coatings, sometimes with quick-drying properties. They can normally be printed only on the one specially coated side. A few papers are coated for double-sided printing.
Glossy photo paper has a shiny finish that gives photos a vivid look. It is generally smooth to the touch and has some glare depending on the lighting and the angle at which it is viewed. Matte photo paper is less shiny. Matte and glossy prints typically feel different to the touch, and they have different photographic properties. Black density and gamut of matte papers is normally less than for gloss or luster papers because of less reflectance and greater absorption/spread of ink into the paper. Papers with an imitation canvas texture emulate the look of oil paintings. Photo papers are usually high-brightness, fairly neutral white papers, but quite a few off-white papers are available.
As in offset litho printing and traditional photographic printing, glossy papers give the highest color density (or Dmax), and therefore the widest color gamut. Photo papers vary in their longevity and their color gamut. Paper suppliers and printer manufacturers often provide color profiles for use with specific inks and printer models. Longevity of inkjet papers is defined according to the stability of certain parameters (for example, fading from exposure to light, change in color balance, ozone resistance, humidity resistance) and depends on the specific combination of inks and paper. For maximum longevity, the paper substrate should be lignin free or cotton-based, or a combination of the two, pH neutral and contain no optical brightening agents in either the substrate or the coatings. Plastic substrates also exist.
No official paper industry standard defines glossy, semi-matte, etcetera, though an objective scale is available for the glossiness of papers used in offset litho printing. Hewlett-Packard, Epson and Kodak all use their own terms to describe their paper, such as Everyday (HP), Premium High Gloss and Luster (Epson) and Ultima (Kodak). ECI (www.eci.org) has categorized papers for proofing simulation of litho papers (type1/2 etc.)
Lithography is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German author and actor Alois Senefelder and was initially used mostly for musical scores and maps. Lithography can be used to print text or images onto paper or other suitable material. A lithograph is something printed by lithography, but this term is only used for fine art prints and some other, mostly older, types of printed matter, not for those made by modern commercial lithography.
Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique, rather than a photographic reproduction of a visual artwork which would be printed using an electronic machine ; however, there is some cross-over between traditional and digital printmaking, including risograph.
Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensive consumer models to expensive professional machines. By 2019, laser printers outsold inkjet printers by nearly a 2:1 ratio, 9.6% vs 5.1% of all computer peripherals.As of 2023, sublimation printers have outsold inkjet printers by nearly a 2:1 ratio, accounting for 9.6% of all computer peripherals, compared to 5.1% for inkjet printers.
Dye-sublimation printing is a term that covers several distinct digital computer printing techniques that involve using heat to transfer dye onto a substrate.
Giclée is a neologism, ultimately derived from the French word gicleur, coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne for fine art digital prints made using inkjet printers. The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on a modified Iris printer in a process invented in the late 1980s. It has since been used widely to mean any fine-art printing, usually archival, printed by inkjet. It is often used by artists, galleries, and print shops for their high quality printing, but is also used generically for art printing of any quality.
Digital printing is a method of printing from a digital-based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small-run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed using large-format and/or high-volume laser or inkjet printers.
Photogravure is a process for printing photographs, also sometimes used for reproductive intaglio printmaking. It is a photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is grained and then coated with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue which had been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a high quality intaglio plate that can reproduce detailed continuous tones of a photograph.
Color printing or colour printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color. Any natural scene or color photograph can be optically and physiologically dissected into three primary colors, red, green and blue, roughly equal amounts of which give rise to the perception of white, and different proportions of which give rise to the visual sensations of all other colors. The additive combination of any two primary colors in roughly equal proportion gives rise to the perception of a secondary color. For example, red and green yields yellow, red and blue yields magenta, and green and blue yield cyan. Only yellow is counter-intuitive. Yellow, cyan and magenta are merely the "basic" secondary colors: unequal mixtures of the primaries give rise to perception of many other colors all of which may be considered "tertiary".
A minilab is a small photographic developing and printing system or machine, as opposed to large centralized photo developing labs. Many retail stores use film or digital minilabs to provide on-site photo finishing services.
Print permanence refers to the longevity of printed material, especially photographs, and preservation issues. Over time, the optical density, color balance, lustre, and other qualities of a print will degrade. The rate at which deterioration occurs depends primarily on two main factors: the print itself, that is, the colorants used to form the image and the medium on which image resides, and the type of environment the print is exposed to.
An Iris printer is a large-format color inkjet printer designed for prepress proofing. It was introduced in 1985 by Iris Graphics, originally of Stoneham, Massachusetts, and is currently manufactured by the Graphic Communications Group of Eastman Kodak. It is also used in the fine art reproduction market as a final output digital printing press, as in Giclée.
Wide format printers are generally accepted to be any computer-controlled printing machines (printers) that support a maximum print roll width of between 18 and 100 inches. Printers with capacities over 100 in wide are considered super-wide or grand format. Wide-format printers are used to print banners, posters, trade show graphics, wallpaper, murals, backlit film (duratrans), vehicle image wraps, electronic circuit schematics, architectural drawings, construction plans, backdrops for theatrical and media sets, and any other large format artwork or signage. Wide-format printers usually employ some variant of inkjet or toner-based technology to produce the printed image; and are more economical than other print methods such as screen printing for most short-run print projects, depending on print size, run length, and the type of substrate or print medium. Wide-format printers are usually designed for printing onto a roll of print media that feeds incrementally during the print process, rather than onto individual sheets.
Kodak Ultima is a brand of photo paper for inkjet printers sold by Eastman Kodak.
Tracing paper is paper made to have low opacity, allowing light to pass through. Its origins date back to at least the 1300s where it was used by artists of the Italian Renaissance. In the 1880s, tracing paper was produced en masse, used by architects, design engineers, and artists. Tracing paper was key in creating drawings that could be copied precisely using the diazo copy process. It then found many other uses. The original use for drawing and tracing was largely superseded by technologies that do not require diazo copying or manual copying of drawings.
Coated paper is paper that has been coated by a mixture of materials or a polymer to impart certain qualities to the paper, including weight, surface gloss, smoothness, or reduced ink absorbency. Various materials, including kaolinite, calcium carbonate, bentonite, and talc, can be used to coat paper for high-quality printing used in the packaging industry and in magazines.
CcMmYK, sometimes referred to as CMYKLcLm or CMYKcm, is a six-color printing process used in some inkjet printers optimized for photo printing. It complements the more common four color CMYK process, which stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (black), by adding light cyan and light magenta. Individually, light cyan is often abbreviated to Lc or c, and light magenta is represented as Lm or m.
Transfer paper is used in textiles and arts and crafts projects. Transfer paper is a thin piece of paper coated with wax and pigment. Often, an ink-jet or other printer is used to print the image on the transfer paper. A heat press can transfer the image onto clothing, canvas, or other surface. Transfer paper is used in creating iron-ons.
Hahnemühle FineArt, Inc. is a paper manufacturing company in the Relliehausen district of Dassel, Germany. It is a significant producer of coated paper for inkjet printing, artist's paper for traditional painting and printing techniques, and filter paper for industry and research.
The surface chemistry of paper is responsible for many important paper properties, such as gloss, waterproofing, and printability. Many components are used in the paper-making process that affect the surface.
Art photography print types refers to the process and paper of how the photograph is printed and developed.
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